Bonnie's PoV

"Alright, squids, I have two very important announcements," Roy announced, slamming his fist down on the lunch table. "One, my birthday's on Tuesday, and I expect a nice party for my 17th birthday."

"We know," Bonnie mumbled. "You've been telling us that since the beginning of week."

"Let me finish," the red-haired inkling snapped. "The second thing is, I got the job!"

"At Starfish Drinks?!" Yuri gasped.

"Yeah, that's the one," Roy confirmed.

"Congrats!" everyone at the table then exclaimed.

"Thank you, thank you." He stood up and did a little bow before sitting back down. "My first day's on Monday after school," the inkling then explained. "Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That's my schedule."

"Pretty convenient you don't have a shift on your birthday," Perry commented. All he did in response was give a small smile.

In the corner of her eye, Bonnie noticed a teacher lurking near them. She knew this teacher—it was her chemistry teacher last year. Mr. Nema was a rather carefree sea slug, preferring to lay out in the sun doing nothing in his free time. Despite this, he is rather skilled in the chemistry department, always willing to help students when they need it. The beige-skinned inkling in particular was one of his favorites.

"Ah, Miss Bonnie Largha!" he suddenly greeted, slithering over to behind her seat. "Nice to see you."

The blue-haired girl could only muster a half-smile. "Nice to see you, too."

"Well, I'm glad I found you, because I need your help," Mr. Nema explained.

"My help?" she breathed, surprised by his offer.

"Yes! You were one of my star students last year, after all."

"Well, what do you need?"

"The kids in my eighth period are complete fools! It's only been a week, and they've already broken two glass vials. Just in that class! One group decided to stick their hands while their burner was running, and they had to be treated for their burns."

"Yikes…" Inigo muttered.

"Anyways, I would like an extra hand today to whip them into shape." The slug extended a long-fingered hand to Bonnie. "So, what do you say? Wanna help?"

"Hmm… Sure." She smiled. "Why not."

"Great!" Mr. Nema started to crawl past her. "See you soon!"

The inkling said nothing more, but she did garner some stares from her friends.

"…Can't say I'm really surprised." Via was the first to speak, the orange-haired girl scratching the back of her head. "Mr. Nema's a smart slug, and you're a smart squid."

"I dunno, helping teachers is kinda lame," Perry added. Bonnie frowned upon hearing this statement. She always hated feeling like an outcast. Realizing this, his purple eyes then locked with his glasses-wearing friend, and he shrugged and said, "But I guess it works for you."

Everyone else gave their nods of approval. "Thanks, squids," she muttered, and the Rainbow Squids continued to eat their lunch quietly.

When the bell for eighth period rang, Bonnie immediately sprung from her seat in her math class and quickly walked to her old chemistry classroom. Mr. Nema greeted her and let her sit in one of the stools he had. She sat there awkwardly as the students poured into the class. Roughly half of the class were inklings like herself, while the rest were a variety of sea creatures.

"Hello, class!" the sea slug greeted. No one said anything in response. "…Today, I have invited a former student of mine to help you all out in the lab today."

"Hi," Bonnie greeted. "My name's Bonnie." Again, no one said a single word. They all simply stared at her. She frowned. Class was more fun last year.

"Today…" Mr. Nema put one of his long fingers on the chalkboard behind him. "We will be heating up a piece of metal. I want you to follow the procedure and record your observations. I'll explain what exactly happened afterwards. Get to it, and no seahorseplay!"

The class was slow to rise to their feet, and she watched as everyone travelled to their lab tables. The class was quite big, with enough people to fill up all of the tables. Bonnie hopped off her stool and put on an apron and goggles. She walked to the first table. On one side of the table was a pair of female inklings with the same double bun as her. The other pair consisted of a jellyfish and a fairy shrimp.

"Jelbert doesn't speak Inkling," the fairy shrimp pointed out. Judging by the voice, he was a boy. "So, I'll translate anything he says."

Jelbert turned to face Bonnie, who stared at her with small, yet beady eyes. "…Okay." She cleared her throat and then asked, "You guys need help?"

"I got this," one of the inklings snapped, getting out a burner. The brown-skinned inkling plugged it in and turned it on, then grabbing the lighter. Within an instant, a blue light shot out of the top of it. The other inkling prepared to strike her mocha-colored hand through the flame, but Bonnie grabbed it before she could do so.

"Don't do that!" the beige-skinned inkling scolded. "Do you want to get burned?"

"I've done it before, and I didn't," the mocha-skinned inkling argued. "I'm not as slow as the lovebirds over there." She pointed to two other inklings, who were hitting on each other instead of doing their work. "Camille tried to grab something that fell into the flame, and now she's in bandages."

"Her boyfriend's just stupid," added the girl who lit the burner. "He cranked the burner up on full blast and put his hand right over it."

"Still. You could get burned," Bonnie pointed out. "And that's not good."

"I did it!" the fairy shrimp then cried out. "I lit the burner!" In his feathery arms, he swung a lighter almost as big as him around. Jelbert lightly patted him on the back, and he made some small noises in response. He dropped it, too. All the blue-haired inkling could do was nod.

"Well, this is lit," the brown-skinned inkling concluded. "Time to drop the metal into this." In her hands was a crucible and what appeared to be some sort of copper. It fell into the small bucket with a clink, and then she set it over the burner. "There."

Bonnie let go of her partner's hand. "If you guys need any help, call me over."

"I'm certain I won't need it," the mocha-skinned girl growled.

The beige-skinned inkling walked to the next table. At this table, there was a pair between an inkling with a buzz cut and a lobster. The other pair was a crab with bandaged claws and a sea urchin.

"What happened to you?" she asked the crab.

"Fire happened," the sea urchin answered. "Rob thought it was a good idea to hold the crucible in place, so I turned up the heat."

Mr. Nema was right, these people really are idiots, Bonnie thought, letting out a sigh. "Why did you do that in the first place?" she asked him.

"To make a statement," he replied, holding up an index finger.

She said nothing more on the matter, now asking, "Do any of you need any help?"

"Nah, we've got it going," answered the inkling with the buzz cut. The lighter poked out of his fist, and he gave a confident smile as he stared at the blue flame. The lobster, on the other hand, was holding the burner. This caught her eye.

"You're not suppose to hold it!" Bonnie hissed at him. "You could get burned!"

"What if it falls over?" the lobster asked.

"It's on a flat surface. It won't fall over unless you try to."

"Hey, accidents happen."

"…Just stay away from the burner. Only touch it when you have to adjust it."

The lobster put a claw behind his red, shiny head. "Fine..."

"And what about you two?" Bonnie then asked the sea urchin and the crab.

"I'm certain we don't need help," the urchin snapped. "We're going to get it running sooner or later."

"Okay, okay." The blue-haired inkling threw her hands up. I was just making sure. She awkwardly stepped past the table, soon arriving at the third one. All the students at this table were female inklings. One pair consisted of a long-haired inkling with olive skin and green eyes, while the other was a short-haired inkling with pale skin and orange eyes. The other pair consisted of yet another long-haired inkling, this one with golden skin and blue eyes, and the other girl had pigtails, bronze skin, and pink eyes.

"Do you use a Classic Squiffer?" the girl with the pigtails asked.

"…Yes, why?" Have I fought her before in turf war?

"I think my friend fought against you in the last Splatfest," she replied. "I remember that she mentioned that she fought against someone named Bonnie."

"Fresh, but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to help you all with chemistry stuff."

"We got this! Don't worry!" the inkling with golden skin assured. She stood on the tips of her toes for a few moments, looking inside the crucible. "It doesn't look any different."

"You have to be patient," Bonnie stated. "It takes a while for some things to heat up."

"But I don't wanna be patient…" the girl whined. "I just wanna get this over with."

"Too bad." Her blue eyes glanced over at the other pair at the third table. "What about you?"

"It's going," the girl with the pale skin stated.

"Oh, have I told you about how hot the squids on the baskfishball team are?" the inkling with olive skin suddenly chirped, leaning over to her partner. Bonnie sighed, digging her face into her hand. The blue-haired inkling then decided to go to the fourth table, where Mr. Nema was. He was examining a malfunctioning burner. When he noticed the former student with navy eyes, he waved.

"Hello, Bonnie!" he greeted. "How are my students?"

"They keep telling me they're fine." She looked over her shoulder at the first three tables. Jelbert was holding the fairy shrimp by his tail, and now he flailed his arms over the crucible. The two dark-skinned girls were on their phones, not paying attention to the burner. The sea urchin had even worse behavior—he was sitting on the table, right next to the burner. The crab simply frowned at him, weakly clenching his claws. The inkling with the buzz cut and the lobster were actually doing their work, removing the crucible from the heat, as well as the pair between the long-haired inkling and the short-haired inkling. The final pair continued to gossip about the baskfishball team. "But I don't think they are."

"Not surprised, but they seem to be better than a few days ago," the sea slug commented. He sighed as he picked up the faulty burner and started to slither to the closet. "You should check up on them, though."

"Will do." Bonnie saluted and walked back over to the first table. She grabbed a ruler and started to tap it on the table. The four students now looked over at her. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice low.

"I'm trying to grab the thing," the fairy shrimp started, "but Jelbert won't let me!"

She stepped next to the jellyfish, causing him to inch closer to the wall. Her hand hovered around the metal bucket momentarily, checking to see if it was cool. Once it was cleared, she grabbed it and set it down on the base of the stand. Jelbert dropped the fairy shrimp, causing him to fall onto the table. He whimpered as soon as he made contact, and then he crawled over to the crucible, jumping onto the base.

"Thanks," the shrimp thanked.

"No problem." She walked over to the other side of the table and squeezed between the two girls in order to turn the burner off. She smiled, saying, "You must have forgot about this."

The mocha-skinned inkling looked over at her and growled, "Hey, you didn't need to do that."

"Yeah, we were gonna get to it eventually," the brown-skinned inkling added.

"You must pay attention to the clock, though," the beige-skinned inkling advised. "Spend too much time, and you'll be stuck here after school."

The brown-skinned inkling started to gape upon hearing this. "Seriously?! I have cheer practice every day!" She then grumbled, "I can't afford to be late," and slouched onto the table.

"Then it's best you get to work." Blue eyes fell onto the steaming crucible. "Though, you can't do much at the moment. All you can do is wait."

"Ugh…" The mocha-skinned inkling's eyes returned to her phone.

"And you," Bonnie asserted, swinging around the second table to face the sea urchin, "need to get off of there."

"No." The sea urchin crossed his arms and looked down at the inkling with his singular green eye.

"I tried to tell him to get off," Rob, the crab, commented. "But my claws still hurt from the burn." He snapped them a few times before adding, "So I can't pull him off."

"Wait, pull him off?" the inkling repeated. "Won't that hurt him?"

"Eh, I'm used to it," the sea urchin said.

"You should still get off the table," the blue-haired inkling pointed out.

"Make me."

She grabbed the urchin by the waist and heaved him off the table. She set him down on the floor and grunted once the strain on her muscles was gone. "There. I made you."

"I can just get back on."

"I'll tell the teacher if you do."

"I'm not scared of him." He hopped back on the table, and everything on it shook a little bit.

The lobster grabbed the crucible, which almost fell over from the earthquake. "Woah, watch it!"

Bonnie sighed and walked over to the back door. "Mr. Nema?" she called, knocking it. "We have some bad students here."

"We do?" The sea slug pushed the door open, the new burner in his hands. "Where?" She pointed to the sea urchin, who was flipping off the teacher. "Mr. Sean Echino! How dare you!" He looked back at the inkling. "Grab my phone, please." Bonnie ran over to his desk, grabbed his phone, and then ran back to him and gave him the school phone. After a few brief moments, he said, "Hello. I'd like to report Sean Echino for inappropriate behavior…Okay, thank you." He put down the phone and demanded, "Go to the office, Echino."

"Fine." Sean jumped off the table and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"…That was anti-climactic," commented a student the blue-haired inkling had not met with. The other students in the class murmured in agreement.

"Well, that's all dealt with," Mr. Nema concluded. "Now, other than Matt and Trevor, is there anyone else not done?" A few people raised their hands. "Well, since most of you are done, I'll explain what happened anyways. Anyone who is done, go back to your seats."

Bonnie walked over to Rob and took the crucible off of its stand. "It's cool now," she said. "You can go back to your seat if you want."

"Thank you!" exclaimed the crab. He ran back to the main area of the classroom.

The beige-skinned inkling examined the lab area. Everyone left was doing what they were supposed to be doing, and a small smile appeared on her face. Though they may be bad students, perhaps her presence put them on their best behavior after all. She continued to stride around the tables, keeping an eye on everyone.

After the bell rang and class was over, Mr. Nema asked, "Miss Bonnie, could you stay for just a few extra moments?"

"Sure." The inkling already had her backpack on, and she adjusted her glasses as she focused on the sea slug. She sat on the stool from earlier, the smile still on her face. "What do you need?"

"I just want to thank you," the teacher started. "Even though it's only been a week since school started, everyone was on their best behavior today. Except Sean, as you saw earlier, but the horseplay has gone down from earlier this week. And it's all thanks to you."

Bonnie felt the heat of embarrassment creep up her face, but she tried to ignore it as she responded, "How do you know they won't return to their normal antics tomorrow?"

"Instinct, little scholar. Instinct."

She giggled and got off the stool. "Well, I should be going."

"Farewell, Bonnie!" Mr. Nema started waving as she stepped closer and closer towards the door. "May you have a successful future!"

A/N: Hello! Honestly, this chapter was the hardest to write yet, as for the first half of the week, I wasn't sure whenever I should go with my idea or not. I did, and this is result. Considering that it was written in about two day, I apologize if it feels rushed. On the bright side, school's out for me, so I should have more time to write now. Branchwing, out!